I've opened the G4 four times. The official Apple way outlined above is vastly superior to the paper clip method. When you lower the screen side of the deck, a little bit of pressure toward you will easily release the clips. Definitely begin with the back (screen side) of the deck where you just remove the two T-6 screws.

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There is one latch that stops you from pulling the upper case right off, located on the left side of the optical drive slit. To free the upper case, you will be pulling a thin metal latch toward you, freeing it from the clasp holding it in place.

Pry up the left side of the upper case slightly with your hand and wedge a spudger into the seam between the upper case and lower case.

Leave the tool in place applying pressure to the upper case for the next step.

This could really use a diagram to show exactly how the clip is structured. I didn't realize the clip was between the front of the case and the back support it attaches to, and it needs to be pried off that back support. (Evil Apple design - would it really hurt to have a screw underneath?). Overall these guides are fantastic! I just replaced a hard drive, and it worked great. And I LOVE the screw guide at the back - brilliant idea!

Apple official disassembly guide suggests instead to lift the upper case from the back up to 45 degrees. Then while lowering it back gently wiggle the upper case and it does disengage the latches. No tools required, no risk of bending the case.

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Place enough pressure on the upper case to allow you to slide a tool just within the seam between upper case and lower case as shown in the picture. A dentist's hook, push pin, or similar tool will work.

Do not yank the upper case off as soon as you free the clasp. The case is attached to the logic board via two ribbon cables.

Delicately slip the tip of your tool behind the silver metal latch and pull it forward while pulling up on the case. This may take some effort.

Alternatively, you can free the clasp with a small flathead screwdriver through the CD slot. The clasp is 1-3/16 in (3cm) from the left side of the slot. Use the screwdriver to lift out (or press back) the felt lining; then use the screwdriver to pull the clasp (shiny metal) forward to free it from the catch behind it (dull metal).

I was able to easily release the latch by putting the spudger in the optical drive slot, and gently prying up. You can see the three holes where the upper case clips in above the drive, and the clips are accessible through those holes from the optical drive slot.

"Forward" (step 10) means toward the front. I was not able to release the latch this way. However, I did eventually release all three latches at once by very slightly lifting the rear of the cover and pressing the cover back toward the screen.

It is not necessary to remove the trackpad and keyboard cables (steps 12, 13, and 14) to replace the hard drive.

"Forward" (step 10) means toward the front. I was not able to release the latch this way. However, I did eveIt is not necessary to remove the trackpad and keyboard cables (steps 12, 13, and 14) to replace the hard drive.

I find it useful to use a big rubber band to hold the keyboard up--put it around the keyboard and display.

I've done several of these before, but today it was a bear to accomplish. I finally did it by inserting a dental pick through the optical slot and pulling forward to release the clip. In case it will help someone else, pictures of the clip are at Devil Clip.

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Lift the back of the case up and work your fingers along the sides, freeing the case as you go. Once you have freed the sides, you may need to rock the case up and down to free the front of the upper case.

Rotate the upper case up and toward the screen, so that the upper case rests against it.

Be very careful! The clasps holding the black strip are extremely fragile and can snap very easily.

In fact it is possible to get to your hard drive and replace it without having to detach this ribbon at all and I would advise that if all you are doing is replacing your hard drive then skip this step.

Yes, the note about skipping this step should be up there, front and center. I followed this step and broke the bit of plastic. Now it's re-fastened with a piece of electrical tape, but I am annoyed because it was totally unnecessary to do that. How do we edit the front page to at least say "OPTIONAL" for this step?

There should be a note on this to say this step is OPTIONAL. I followed instructions as written, broke the little plastic piece, and have taped it back together with electrical tape. But after replacing the hard drive, I see it was totally unnecessary to take this step. It's a high risk step, people should be warned.

the diagram is a bit confusing, and the text is a bit confusing for non english speakers. when it said pull up a small amount, i thought you have to try and lift it from the motherboard. all you have to do is move the black plastic bit towards the screen with your fingernails and the broad thing plastic keyboard cable comes off.

Watch this step carefully! The release mechanism pushes back slightly, parallel with the surface of the logic board. You may want to gently use a sparger rather than your thumbs if you have big fingers. This is a very delicate connector. Work one side slightly then the other. The good news is that it does not offer any resistance.

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These are the 6 mm silver (not stainless) screws. Don't use the longer 9 mm silver screws (for battery compartment) by mistake and have to take everything apart again to retrieve them. Like I did of course.

I didn't bother removing the ribbon cables, it was easy enough to get the hard drive out of there. In total I had 8 different types of screws (and 7 if I grouped the ones in the ram and battery compartments together, to avoid this problem) and found that a 7 day pill case worked perfectly for arranging them in the correct order for reassembly.

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Disconnect the hard drive cable from the hard drive by applying even pressure on both sides while maintaining a firm grip on the drive itself.

This is a bit tricky. Try holding the drive against your body while pushing the cable away from you, or rocking the cable gently from side to side while applying even pressure, or both. If you bend the pins, do your best to straighten them, using the hard drive cable as a guide.

If you are installing a new hard drive, we have an OS X install guide to get you up and running.

Everything is installed as instructed. Thanks for the perfect guide. However, I am not allowed to install OSX on my HD. The install program shows the drive with a red exclamation point over it and tells me the drive can't be used as a startup. This should be easy.

Everything is installed as instructed. Thanks for the perfect guide. However, I am not allowed to install OSX on my HD. The install program shows the drive with a red exclamation point over it and tells me the drive can't be used as a startup. This should be easy.

I too ran into this EXTRA annoying problem... when installing from the restore disks, however after formatting the drive using disk utility, I discovered that I needed to reboot (holding C) again to get the 10.3 (or is it 10.4?) installer to recognize the disk! What a picky error! Apparently it won't recognize any partition for install that isn't there at boot time... SO after partitioning you need to reboot AGAIN and then it should finally recognize/work!

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Step 9-10 : I found the instructions on releasing the front latch not very helpful (at least I did not succeed) following these steps). However I found on line the official Apple disassembly manual whci directs you to do the following : lift the keyboard assembly from the back up to 45 degrees and this will (and DOES) release the front latches when you gently wiggle the keyboard assembly left and right. When you do that you can indeed SEE where the latches are and it really helps. No prying tools necessary. Good luck.

An excellent tutorial. I needed to remove the HDD for destruction prior to transferring the system to our surplus warehouse. I agree with the comment above that the front is difficult to remove, but was able to disconnect easily enough using a small dental pick. Thank you for the breakdown.

I really appreciated this photo and text info page. My powerbook was making a grinding sound. When I opened it up it turned out to be the hard drive. I installed a solid state drive, but I am having issues installing the OS.

Some things I found that might be helpful to others....

1) I could never boot my powerbook to a CD by holding down the "C". Key. However I was able to boot many time by holding down the Option key.

2) I never did pull out the two cables in step 12 and 13. All I did was lift up the keyboard and lay it up next to the screen with out ever taking the two cable off the power book. I had more then enough room to pull the old hard drive and install the new one.

3) Try holding down the Option key on boot if you can not boot to a CD. It works for me.

Thank you who ever you are for posting this web page. It was extremely helpful.

Great instructions. The comment that the keyboard and trackpad cables don’t need to be disconnected is spot on. Just lift up the top case and tape it to the screen, and there is plenty of room to work on the hard drive.

My only disagreement is with the difficulty rating. I’d rate it as medium, rather than difficult. I’ve taken apart a 2010 Mac mini recently to swap in an SSD - THAT is DIFFICULT. This is easy in comparison - mostly just removing and keeping track of lots of tiny screws. On the other hand, the previous owner had dropped it a few times, denting the case, so the only hard part involving the release of a not-visible latch wasn’t an issue for me as the dented case had caused the latch to become ineffective.

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